


The Snatcher and The Moonjumper

by FlamingoSkull



Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:14:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23211571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlamingoSkull/pseuds/FlamingoSkull
Summary: "We're nothing alike."The Snatcher was told this centuries ago, when he had first woken up. His body, at least what he called his body, was only a shadow, stuck on a tree that was next to a frozen home. He wasn't even the Snatcher back then. He simply was...there. A thing. Nothing.The one who told him this was someone he wouldn't meet again for years, a century at least. A cold corpse that was deformed and regarded his tree with an annoyed gaze. "What a shame that you've taken my soul."
Comments: 3
Kudos: 60





	The Snatcher and The Moonjumper

**Author's Note:**

> More old fics, this time a thing that I just had the urge to write.

"We're nothing alike."

The Snatcher was told this centuries ago, when he had first woken up. His body, at least what he called his body, was only a shadow, stuck on a tree that was next to a frozen home. He wasn't even the Snatcher back then. He simply was...there. A thing. Nothing.

The one who told him this was someone he wouldn't meet again for years, a century at least. A cold corpse that was deformed and regarded his tree with an annoyed gaze. "What a shame that you've taken my soul."

At the time, he could not respond. Could not laugh at this. In fact, he couldn't really comprehend it. So, the man had left, along with a gust of wind.

For fifty years, he was nothing. He was a shadow, who stared at a lonely house. For fifty years, he would stare at the window of a pathetic home where a woman would either say nothing or scream.

Finally, he would be something. He would crawl out of that frozen tree, that dead tree. He would emerge from the earth, gasping and screaming for air he doesn't need. He would, briefly, feel unbearably cold. Then, he would feel nothing.

And so, the Snatcher came to be. A shadow of the prince, a tale to be told and forgotten, considering everyone who knew of the prince and princess were dead. In one way or another. The Snatcher wouldn't care about this for years. He didn't know them, can't remember them. In fact, his only memory of anything would be a cold basement that came with foggy dreams.

This was fine to him. Something he could ignore. Until the man came back.

\--

He walked from the moon. At least, that's what he said the second he saw the Snatcher. Well, actually, he said he jumped from the moon, but that sounded stupid.

"Do you know me?" He asks, brows raised and his broken monocle gleaming in moonlight. The Snatcher ignored him.

"Do you know her?" He asks, and looks at the lonely mansion with the crying woman. The Snatcher doesn't ignore that. He tilts his head and stares. The man, the moon jumper, turns his back and says, "You should never go back there."

\--

The Snatcher thinks about it for days. Confused by the words, unsure what to think of them. So, he goes to the house one night. Drifts inside of it, blinking at what he sees. Pictures, furniture, ice statues. And a woman, who stares at a mirror.

She doesn't see him. At least, he doesn't think she can.

She has tired, tired red eyes. Her dark hair is long and mangled, and her dress is in a sorry state. Her face looks wet, as if she's been crying and hasn't stopped.

Her fingers are iced over, and the Snatcher wonders if she can feel anything with them.

\--

He leaves her alone, out of boredom. And doesn't think about the house for another century. Not until the drifters show up.

Spirits who stare at him, who won't leave him alone and keep crying at nothing. They speak in quiet tones, and through them, the Snatcher learns of that house. Of that sad woman.

And because of that, the Snatcher learns to remember. He remembers the basement now, not only in his dreams. He remembers the cold, and the woman, who smiled at him and in a loving voice, only called him Prince.

This causes the Snatcher to stay in his home (a new tree) for days. Maybe a year. He stays there and mopes, lets the earth slowly claim his home. Everything, ultimately, feels gray. Fake. As if he has not done anything right now.

The man who jumps the moon comes back, and glares at the Snatcher. "You're pathetic. So what? You remember. Get over it."

He doesn't. It takes a month of the Moonjumper bothering her to make him move. Make him leave. Make him actually do something besides stare at a wall.

The feeling of hopelessness stays when the Moonjumper leaves.

\--

It becomes easier to hide. He finds distractions through souls, and the complications of them. He learns how they are, what others will do and give up for them. It becomes a fascination, and something he obsesses over.

The Snatcher is fine.

The Moonjumper does not bother him.

\--

The kid ruins things.


End file.
